This website is focused exclusively on writing. At my second blog, Jawbone of an Ass, I ramble through any random topic that springs to mind, occasionally touching on religion and politics and other subjects polite people are sensible enough not to discuss in public.

Coming out in 2014 will be my Oz inspired novel Bad Wizard, published by Antimatter Press. I'm currently working hard to finish up another superhero novel, Cut Up Girl. Watch this space for news!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

I know that February is a little late to be writing a column called "The Year Ahead," but what the hey. I'd hoped by now to be able to officially announce news of my next releases. But, not yet. Soon. I just mailed off my agency agreement to my new agent yesterday. I've been advised not to announce who until we also announce the book deal, to increase the publicity value of the news. So, patience!

News I can share is an update on my schedule for public appearances. So far, I'm lined up to be guests at Mysticon in Roanoke at the end of this month, Stellarcon in High Point the following weekend in March, Ravencon in Richmond in April, and ConCarolinas in early June. In addition to Cons, I'll also be appearing at the Person County Library on April 30.

So far, no fall cons lined up. I've been invited to some, but I'm getting married on November 11 and would rather use vacation time then for a honeymoon than book promotion. But, I may yet decide to squeeze in one or two.

As far as actual writing goes, I've got three projects in the works. First, I'm working on a collection of my short fiction to be released directly to Kindle called, tentatively, "There is No Wheel." The table of contents is currently in flux. Eight of the stories are no brainers, stuff that instantly leapt to mind as stories I wanted to reprint. But I'd like the collection to be at least ten stories long, and I've got about six candidates for those last two slots. I have a few unpublished stories that I'm still fond of, and it might be nice to include new material. On the other hand, I've got plenty of stories that appeared in anthologies or magazines with fairly small circulation. It might be nice to let stories like "Pentacle on His Forehead, Lizard on His Breath" see the light of day again. And, really, there's no reason I have to limit the collection to ten stories. Still, I think the overall quality will be improved if I avoid opening this up to every story I've ever had in print.

I'll also be starting the sequel to Greatshadow. Hush continues directly from the events of the first book, and features the primal dragon of cold, Hush, as human cultists who worship her as a god scheme to kill the dragon of the sun to plunge the world into permanent winter.

Before I start that, I hope to finish my Nobody Gets the Girl sequel "My Cancer Beauty." I'm five chapters in, and finally starting to get the voice of the narrator flowing naturally for me. I plan for this to go directly to Kindle as well. Nobody is performing better than I hoped on Kindle. I should have written this book years ago, but didn't think I'd ever get it published. The beauty of e-publishing is that I'll never face this problem again. I can just write a book for the sheer joy of writing it and know it will find at least a couple of hundred readers on Kindle. God, I love living in the future!